Matthew-102

 

Today, we continue our exposition in the teaching of our Lord Jesus in Matthew 24:28. Once again, to get the whole back­ground, we shall read from Matthew 24:15-28 since this whole section belongs together.

 

How to avoid being deceived by false christs, false prophets & the Antichrist

Notice that the section concerns itself with the Antichrist, the abomination of desolation in verse 15. And notice that whereas verse 24 speaks of false christs and false teachers coming, yet verses 23 and 26 bring it immediately down to a single person. Notice the singular “he” in:

It focuses on this one, “he” who is the Antichrist. So there is this preoccupation in this passage with the Antichrist.

The whole purpose is to see that we are not deceived. Twice we find in this section, “do not believe it.” As a Christian, you do not believe whatever everybody tells you. You exercise insight and that involves not only intelligence, it involves spiritual perception and evaluating carefully and accurately whether the claims are true or false. Chris­tians are not meant to be gullible. They are meant to be perceptive, to evaluate every teaching, every saying: Is it true or false? This whole passage is concerned with how to avoid being deceived by false teachers and by the Antichrist himself.

 

The Lord Jesus uses parabolic language to teach

This passage has been an exceedingly great problem to commenta­tors. Part of the problem is that we do not understand the Lord Jesus’ parabolic technique of speaking. Most of us who are western-edu­cated have become very literalistic in mind; we are not able to function with metaphors and parables. These things are too difficult for us to handle. We know how to handle straightforward state­ments: this is this, that is that, but try reading poetry sometime and see how well you get on. You will see that your scientific training gets you into all kinds of problems because you simply cannot think in the way that a poet thinks. His language is profound but it is also colorful and very interesting, but you have to understand his style. Try reading Keats, or Lord Tennyson, or Milton, or whatever, and you will find such problems with poetry. Or try Chinese poetry sometime and you will have the same problem. We are simply not used to the language of poetry, not used to the language of parable. We can handle a mathematical problem. Otherwise, just put it into the computer, and it will solve it for you. But a computer cannot handle poetry. When I look at the commentators, they have problems. Actually, this verse is by no means difficult to understand. In fact, it is truly a beautiful way of expressing a profound truth. And yet, it is not at all complicated once we understand how to think in the way that the Lord Jesus thinks and teaches.

 

50% of words are different in the Greek texts of Matthew 24:28 and Luke 17:37!

Let us proceed to look at this passage, Matthew 24:28.

If you have an RSV, you will see “vultures” in the margin as an alter­native. This is because the Greek word can mean either eagles or vultures.

Let us read the parallel passage in Luke 17:37, where the disciples have been listening to Jesus concerning the last things, and ask him, “Where will all this happen?” In studying the Scriptures, it is always important to familiarize oneself with the parallels.

I have emphasized it before, and I emphasize it again to those of you who really want to learn to serve God. You have to learn to work from the original. Working with a translation is absolutely hopeless! No matter how good your English is, you will not make head or tail out of this passage simply because you will not have the means to understand what is going on.

Let me illustrate what I mean. If you look at these two passages in the Chinese Bible and compare them side by side, you will notice that there is no difference whatsoever between the two passages in the Chinese text. It is word for word the same in Matthew and in Luke.

If you use the Revised Standard Version, and you compare the two passages, you will notice that in the English texts of the RSV, there is a difference of one single word in these two passages, and even that difference is not significant. As you notice, Luke has “where” and Matthew has “wherever.” That is the only difference between the two passages.

After having looked at the English and the Chinese, you will be sur­prised to discover that 50% of the words in the Greek are different! Yet in Chinese, and in English there is no difference, there is an insignificant difference of “where” or “wherever.” It is striking, isn’t it that half of the words are different in these two Greek texts? It doesn’t emerge in the English at all!

 

Matthew and Luke are entirely different in what they aim to say

You will soon discover that Matthew and Luke in fact, are entirely different in what they aim to say. These two passages are entirely different, but you would never know that from the English, and even less from the Chinese.

 

Sōma (body in Matthew), ptōma (corpse in Luke)

The key to the difference of these two verses in Greek lies in the word “body,” which is a different word in Luke from the word in Matthew. I am sorry I have to go into the Greek because there is no other way I can bring out the meaning of this passage. In Greek, you have the word soma for “body.” This word soma occurs also in English. You have for example, the word “psychosomatic.” “Psycho” is from the Greek word psuchos, the mind, and you have soma means body. And “psychosomatic” is that term which expresses the influence of the mind upon the body. If someone says he has a pain and you want to say, “It’s all in the mind, it’s not anything real,” you would say, “It’s psychosomatic.” So the word translated as “body” in Luke is the word sōma. The word in Matthew also translated “body” is an entirely different word in Greek. It is the word ptōma.

I cannot understand why the English and the Chinese translators, translate the words identically. The Chinese translators correctly translate ptōma in Matthew as “corpse”, 屍首(shi shou). but interest­ingly, they translate sōma in Luke as “corpse”, 屍首 (shi shou) as well. That translation is absolutely disastrous! Obviously, our Chinese translators don’t know Greek. But the English translation is not doing any better. It translates sōma in Luke correctly as “body”, and then it translates ptōma in Matthew as “body” as well. But that can be correct because the English word “body” is equivocal. It can refer to a living body or a dead body. The word “body” in English does not tell you whether the body is alive or dead, but not with the Greek, and that is precisely the point.

In Greek, sōma (in Luke) always refers to a living body; ptōma (in Matthew), always refers to a dead body. Unless you grasp this point, you will have no way to understand the passage. You are stuck and there is no way you are going to get anywhere with it. All you have to do is take a Greek concordance and look at the way the word sōma is used in the Greek Bible, and you will discover that soma always refers to a living body. You don’t have to be a Greek specialist for that.

This is very, very important for understanding the communion for example. “This is my body, given for you.” “This is my sōma, given for you.” The Lord Jesus says, “What I’m giving you is a living body, not a corpse! Therefore, if you eat this living body, you will live!” That is why in John 6, the people took great offense in him: “How can we eat your flesh, eat your body? What are you talking about? You are still alive and standing there and you expect me to take a bite out of you? Are we going to kill you and barbecue you? What are we supposed to do? What are you talking about – ‘eat my flesh’?” What he is talking about is in spiritual terms. Therefore at the communion, for example, 1Corinthians 11:24 tells us that the Lord Jesus said, “This is my body, my sōma which carries life, not my corpse. This is what I give to you.” Try to imprint the word sōma carefully into your mind.

We are the body of Christ. The church is the body of Christ, not the corpse of Christ. Too often, the church today is a corpse, I’m sorry to say. But we are not meant to be a corpse. We are meant to have the life of Christ manifest in us. We are the body of Christ with his life in it—each one of us, his disciple, imitates his life—to be communi­cated to the world.

But not so with the word ptōma in Matthew. Ptōma in Matthew always means a corpse. All you have to do is look up a Greek dictionary. You don’t have to take my word for that. Just look at any Greek dictionary and it will tell you that ptōma is a corpse. Notice, the Chinese translation had put “corpse” 屍首 (shi shou) in Matthew, and got it right! But they got it wrong when they translated the word sōma as “corpse” 屍首 (shi shou ) in Luke as well!

Once we understand this, we are on the way to understanding that there is a comparison and a vital difference between Matthew and Luke. Don’t think that Matthew and Luke simply repeat each other. Often, they say something similar but also radically different in sub­stance, so that we don’t have three Gospels simply repeating each other but complementing each other, giving us deeper insight into something of spiritual importance to us. When we begin to under­stand this, we are on the way to understanding the whole matter in this passage.

 

Vultures are gathered by a corpse. Eagles are gathered by a living body

What is it saying to us? First, we have to study eagles. I mentioned the RSV tells you in its margin that the Greek word for “eagles” can mean either eagles or vultures. They belong to the same family yet are significantly different creatures, aren’t they? An eagle differs from a vulture in many important ways but most importantly in this: a vulture goes for the ptōma, the corpse; but eagles don’t eat corpses; they are only interested in living bodies. There is the key to your whole understanding. Once you understand that one passage talks about a corpse and the other about a living body, then you will also know that one talks about vultures and the other talks about eagles. There is a vital difference!

Lately, I have also been reading up on eagles, just as I was studying in detail on lightning for last week’s message. Being a preacher means that you have to read up on many subjects. So when you finish being a preacher, you will know a lot about many things. That is of necessity if you want to expound the Word of God accurately and not be found talking nonsense.

One thing you will know about eagles is that by choice—unless they are made almost to starve to death, they don’t eat corpses—they always go for living animals. I was reading about some golden eagles in the south of the United States and it is very interesting. A man captured a golden eagle with a live dove when it was flapping its wings. The eagle immediately sees the living creature and dives down. This fellow was hiding in a pit that he had dug and had put leaves over the top. Then he put his hand underneath this pigeon, which was protected from the beak of the powerful eagle with very heavy gloves. So when the eagle came down and landed beside this living pigeon to seize it, this man grabbed hold of the golden eagle by the legs. This shows you how these eagles go for living creatures like rabbits and other live animals that move around. They have tremendously sharp vision and enormous speed. They dive out of the sky at enormous height, flying down like no dive bomber can, to seize the prey which has to be alive. They are not interested in dead bodies, unless they have been held in captivity for so long that they are starving.

However, the vulture by choice, goes for dead bodies. It doesn’t touch a living thing. Although the vulture is as big as the eagle, with as powerful beak and claws as the eagle, yet it will not chase a rabbit. Perhaps it’s too much work to chase a rabbit. That is my guess. It will not chase any living thing. All the vulture wants is the corpse, there­fore when it sees something that is dying, it circles overhead and waits and waits for the creature to die and then it comes. The vulture does not come when the creature is still moving. It goes for dead things by choice. It’s very interesting! That is precisely the point of this passage.

We have to notice one more thing to accurately expound this passage. The word “gather” is correctly translated as a passive in Matthew: “Where the corpse is, there the vultures will be gathered together.” It means that it is not the vultures that gather, they are being gathered. Also in Luke, it is not the eagles that gather, they are being gathered. What gathers the vultures is the corpse, and what gathers the eagles is the body. They are attracted. Notice also it is not one vulture or one eagle but “vultures” and “eagles.”

 

The corpse represents the Antichrist who gathers the vultures

What is the importance of these observations? I have already pointed out to you that the context has to do with the Antichrist. The Antichrist is the subject of this entire passage. The corpse represents the Antichrist, and this Antichrist gathers to himself the vultures.

 

Beware of the striking resemblance of true and false, living and dead

There is the beauty of this imagery that can never be brought out by a quasi scientific statement but can only be brought out by the powerful imagery of parabolic language. Notice this: Eagles and vultures have a striking resemblance to each other. In fact, I think that in Chinese, the vulture is often called a “bald eagle.” That is not correct because the bald eagle is a true eagle not a vulture. I think the Chinese call a vulture a bald eagle because it has a very ugly, bald head, whereas generally speaking, the eagle has feathers on its head.

The point of the beauty of this imagery is that there is a resemblance between vultures and eagles. Their resemblance is so close that in fact, the Greek does not seem to have a distinguishing word for the two. They are both called eagles in Greek. They are both simply regarded as members of the eagle family, yet their instincts and their character are entirely different. Interesting, isn’t it?

Notice another point of striking resemblance between the dead body and the living body. Both are bodies. You see a dead body but you might think it is a sleeping, living body. As I said, even in English, “body” doesn’t distinguish between whether it is dead or alive because there is this striking resemblance. In fact, the living body and the dead body are alike in every way except for the vital differ­ence of one having life and the other having no life. There is the beauty of this picture. Precisely because the dead body and the living body are so strikingly similar, it takes discernment to tell if this body is alive or dead.

Perhaps sometimes, we need a doctor to tell us whether the person is pronounced clinically dead, or whether he is still alive. You have to take his pulse. If his pulse is very weak, you have to find another way, perhaps put a mirror by his nose and see if there is some condensation, or by what other ways. In fact, today, a person is not always certainly dead even when you think he is dead. It takes a certain discernment to know whether this is dead or that is alive.

 

Deception: Christ and Antichrist appear similar in look and power

This also tells us the beauty of the Lord Jesus’ language: Beware of the striking resemblance of things which are nonetheless essentially different. The Christ and the Antichrist might at first sight, look very, very similar to each other. We can tell much better whether a thing is physically alive or physically dead after some close observation. But could you tell the difference whether a person is spiritually alive or spiritually dead? I think you would be much less confident when it comes to differentiating whether a person is spiritually alive or dead. It is very hard to tell, and that is precisely where the deception comes in. The Lord Jesus says that when the Antichrist comes doing signs and wonders, manifesting a certain spiritual power, would you be able tell whether or not that power is from God? If someone raises the dead, are you sure that he exercised God’s power?

Once, I was reading up on precisely this point, and I was greatly struck that a spirit medium or a witch was able to raise the dead under certain circumstances. When he became a Christian later, he was asked how could he have done these wonders like healing the sick and raising the dead, since he was not even a Christian at that time, so he could not have been drawing on God’s power? And he frankly replied, “I did them by the power of the devil.”

The devil has powers too, and that is something Christians apparently don’t recognize very well these days. If the devil can do certain things that are as impressive as what certain Christians could do, then how do you tell who is true and who is false? How do you tell that this is a spiritually dead body and that is a live body? Which one is it? Notice those words we studied last week: “to deceive, if possible, even the elect.” Even the elect will have a hard time telling, “Is this genuine or false? Is this or isn’t this of God?” It’s hard to tell because there is a striking resemblance.

 

People can speak in the name of God when their talk is of the devil

I have seen God do wonderful things. I have seen the sick being cured. But there is always the question in your mind: Is this God’s working or some other spiritual power’s doing? Always discern. A person may speak in tongues but are these tongues from God or not?

Those of you from Malaysia will know that not only Christians can speak in tongues, but spirit mediums can also speak in tongues as good as any Christian. Then you scratch your head and say, “Hey! This Christian speaks in tongues and that spiritist also speaks in tongues, which one is genuine? Which is false? Suppose he just doesn’t tell you that he is a spirit medium. Suppose he wants to get into the church and he is going to speak in tongues. He says, “You can speak in tongues? I can speak in tongues more than you. Just listen to me.” Off he goes, and you are so impressed! How do you know whether he is a genuine or false Christian?

That happened to us in Liverpool. A lady was prophesying in ecstasy! Have you ever seen a person prophesy in ecstasy? If you have never seen it before, I tell you it can make your hair stand on end. It was a terrifying experience! When the brethren called me to go to the church to see this woman prophesying, it was such that many of our young people in the church were hiding themselves in the back room for terror! They were so frightened of this experience! This woman was speaking in prophecy. “Thus says the Lord!” She was in such an ecstatic state of mind that when her husband, who was not a Christian at the time, slapped her left and right, she did not even know that anyone was slapping her! She was completely unaware of what was happening to her physically. I am sharing with you these things because it’s not easy to tell whether the body is dead or alive, spiritually speaking.

 

Not all who raise the dead are from God. Even doctors can.

Don’t believe what everybody says. You need to exercise discern­ment. I am sure that if someone were clinically proven to be dead, and a person came and raised that person from the dead, as indeed has happened many times, I think you would be so impressed that you will be sure this man is from God! He must be from God because only God can raise the dead. No! Not so fast! Even doctors can raise the dead in these days, and they haven’t yet become God. When the heart has stopped, the doctors today, with their great skills, can put electric shock pads on your chest and you will fly up into the air, and your heart is beating again! It is really fantastic! They can even bring the dead to life again with some electric shocks! So don’t be too sure that if someone raises the dead, his power is from God. Not necessa­rily.

I am so concerned to stress this point to show you why in these last days, it becomes increasingly difficult to tell whether that teacher is true or false, whether that prophet is from God, whether that “Christ” who says that he is the Christ is genuine or false. Oh, it takes discernment! How can we tell true from false in this generation? That is the point of these words of the Lord Jesus. It is so important to discern!

 

Seek the narrow road of life, and seek to imitate Lord Jesus

Once we have understood that Luke 17:37 talks about the body and Matthew 24:28 talks about the corpse, the one talks about eagles and the other about vultures, then what we need to understand is this: The way to tell a body from a corpse is not a question of a technique. I must stress that it is not a question of technique. The Lord Jesus tells us that in order not to be deceived, you must become a certain kind of person.

We just saw that a vulture has a certain characteristic about it, that is, it goes for dead bodies. It’s not because it has arrived at some rationalized conclusion, but its nature is attracted to dead bodies. The question of whether you will go for the Antichrist or not does not lie in whether you have only developed some profound technique of discernment. That technique, if there is a technique, cannot be separated from your nature. This is the point that I must bring home to you very clearly today.

The eagle, in its very nature is unlike the vulture. Its nature goes for what is alive, for what is vibrant with life. It’s not interested in corpses but in living things! It might see something lying there, it circles ahead quickly, and if it establishes that it is dead, it is not attracted and it goes away. The eagle is attracted to what has life. But the vulture sees something dying, and it gets very interested. It hovers about and lingers on; it’s interested in dead bodies.

 

You either go for what is alive or what is dead. Choose life!

What do we learn from this important truth? In order not to be spiritually deceived, you must have a new nature, a nature that seeks what is alive, that goes after the things which live, that seeks for life. If you are a person with the eagle nature, the nature that seeks for living things, the Antichrist will have a much more difficult time deceiving you. Whereas if you are a person with a vulture nature, the nature that goes after dead things, the Antichrist will have no trouble whatsoever deceiving you. You will find the Antichrist appeals to your nature because your nature is already geared towards the things which are dead. You must ask yourself this question, what kind of nature do you have? All mankind is divided into these two basic natures. There is no third category. You either go for what is alive or for what is dead. That is the vital spiritual lesson in this passage.

It reflects the same teaching of the Lord Jesus in Luke 13:24, that there are two roads: one is the broad road of destruction, the other is the narrow road to life. Why does the majority of people go down the broad road of destruction? Why do they have the vulture nature to go for what is dead? It’s not that they deliberately want to choose something evil, but their nature inclines them in the direction of the broad road, at the end of which is death. Your nature is the determin­ing factor of what will happen to you.

The eagle however, is interested in the narrow road of life. It is much easier to feed on a dead body; you don’t have to struggle or fight with what is dead. All you have to do is waddle towards it and pick at the dead body like a vulture. It seems to be a much easier way of life. The eagle has to have sharp eyesight, co-ordinate all its movements and time its action. In fact, it takes ingenuity, a lot of skill to capture a living, fast-moving animal.

A rabbit runs very fast and in zigzag motion when it is being chased. Just like when an airplane is going to dive at you and open up its machine guns, you don’t run in a straight line, you run zigzag, hoping that the bullet will miss you. Or if someone is shooting at you, you don’t run in a straight line, but in zigzag to make it more difficult for him to shoot. The rabbit runs in very fast zigzag motion. Who taught the rabbit this skill?

The man who wrote about the golden eagle said he watched with fascination the skill of this golden eagle. The eagle descended behind the rabbit and made a passing motion as though it were going to one side. The rabbit noticing it, went to the other side, which is exactly what the eagle wanted it to do. And the eagle swerved right into the path of the rabbit. You might almost say what intelligence the eagle exercised in making a kind of bluff move to one side, knowing that that would move the rabbit to go towards the other side, and then swooping exactly into the direction where it had made the rabbit to go, and so cancel out the effectiveness of its zigzag! You don’t want to play chess with an eagle! It has calculated your motions in advance! Not only so, but consider how it has to time its movement and its speed to the speed and movement of the rabbit. That requires skill, and also involves a lot of energy and perfect timing. It’s incredible!

But the vulture doesn’t have to do any of this. All it has to do is to find something dead and go and feed on it. It’s much easier perhaps. After all, both the living and the dead bodies are protein, so why worry about it? Why go the hard way to get your protein? There is the fundamental difference of nature and mentality between these two animals.

 

Choose life: Set your mind on Christ and things of God

That is what the apostle Paul says in Romans 12:1-2 – “be trans­formed by the renewing of your mind.” Your whole thinking has to be transformed! Whereas in the past, you went for dead things, he is saying to us as Christians, your whole thinking should be renewed. Now, you go for the things which are alive!

What does all this mean? Take for example, Colossians 3:1-2 where Paul says,

He said, “Let your mind be renewed” in Romans 12:2; he does not directly tell us how our thinking is to change, but he tells us here in Colossians. Before, your mind was on things of the earth but now that you have been raised with Christ into a new kind of life, let your mind also be changed. Seek the things which are above.

You might say, “What are the things that are above? Down here, I see something concrete. Up there, I see the blue sky. What is there to look for up there?” There is the difference in thinking. We think we are very practical because we are down-to-earth. And Paul is telling us precisely that we should be “up-to-heaven” not down-to-earth. The Christian is not going to be down-to-earth in the sense that his mind is bound to the things that are upon the earth.

And Paul makes this point further in 2 Corinthians 4:18. He says,

Why do we do that? It’s because:

We look for the things that are not seen because the things that are seen are transient. Look around you, and everything you see is transient. Do you see something that is intransient? This pulpit will be no more after some years. These pillars will stand no more. This building will be no more. All these things have passed away just as throughout all history. The glories of ancient Greece are no more. The glories of ancient China are no more. The glories of ancient Egypt are no more. And the things that we see now will also be no more. In fact, you and I will also be physically no more before too long. The things which are seen are transient. It is a factual statement that cannot be argued with.

The things that are not seen are eternal. What is not seen? Take love, righteousness, truth, kindness, goodness, mercy, and we can go on and on. Take the things which are spiritual. Take your spirit, your soul, the things which are not seen, which abide when all else is gone. Set your mind on that which is above.

 

The Antichrist will appeal to and deceive your material mind. Change!

Frankly, it is hard to do because by nature, we are vultures. We seek the things which are material; we go after the things which are on earth. The money in the bank makes sense to us. A house makes sense. It gives us a point of comparison: What’s your house like in comparison to my house? My house is bigger than yours. I’ve got a garage; you have none. We are talking about concrete things, down-to-earth business.

What can you say about kindness? I have kindness; you have kindness. This is too woolly. If you give me kindness, what do I do with it? I cannot eat or drink kindness. But if you give me money, I will know what kindness is. I can buy food with it. If you come along and pat me on the back, I might have to wash my shirt after that. But if you put some money in my pocket, now you are talking sense. So we get down to these concrete things. Our minds are so vulture-like, isn’t it?

We feed on the things that are passing away. Even though Paul says all these things will pass away, you say, “It doesn’t matter that they will pass away. I can feed on them in the mean time. The dead body is dead but it’s still protein. I can still feed on it. I can still make some good use of this.” That is our mentality.

The Lord Jesus is saying, “If that is your mentality, when the Antichrist comes, he is going to appeal so powerfully to your mental­ity that you will be swept away with him. The vultures will gather where the corpse is. The eagles will gather where the body is. Where will you gather? Will you go for the body or the corpse? That depends on what you are.”

 

What is the nature of the eagle?

1. Dwells high above

Let us consider a little more about the nature of the eagle. The eagle lives in the high places; he dwells above. Those who are not eagles but pretend to live as eagles will be in trouble with God. That is what Jeremiah 49:16 is telling us:

God is saying, “You are not an eagle. Don’t pretend to be one.”

 

2. Has tremendous, clear eye-sight

The tremendous clarity of vision of the eagle is proverbial. The eagle has eyesight that human beings could not begin to compare with. The family of eagles has incredible eyesight. In fact, I have read that when they tested the vision of one of these smaller eagles, the hawks, they could see a needle 3 miles away. I cannot see it 300 yards away, never mind 3 miles! Such is the acuteness of vision of these eagles that they can see with incredible clarity.

What is your spiritual vision like? I so delight when I see someone show a sharpness of spiritual insight, powerful clarity of discern­ment when speaking of spiritual things. It means that God is trans­forming your thinking. Or rather, is it the case that when you look at spiritual things, your mind is so muddled, you cannot think of spiritual things? That shows that you still have a vulture mentality.

As I have said before, when it comes to spiritual things, it’s not a question of intelligence; it is a question of spiritual insight. You may be an extremely intelligent person but when it comes to spiritual things, you may be no better than a fool. I have seen distinguished scientists who are probably worse than ten-year olds when it comes to understanding spiritual truths. They cannot see these things. But sometimes, you find very humble people, who are not terribly intelligent, but have such clarity of insight! They can see things with such distinction. It shows you it has nothing to do with intelligence. Of course, it is a wonderful combination when you have a person like the apostle Paul, who is intellectually extremely brilliant, and at the same time he is spiritually tremendously perceptive. It’s a rare combination indeed, but there are such rare gems.

So ask yourself, do you dwell in the high places spiritually? Do you love prayer? Is it sweet? Or is prayer a tiring exercise to you? How do you find your spiritual perception? When you study the things of God, can you see it clearly in one flash, as the Chinese say, 一目了然 (yi mu liao ran)? Or do you struggle all day and cannot see? As the Lord Jesus said, “They hear but they do not understand. They see but they do not perceive.” They look and don’t see; hear and don’t hear anything. These are spiritual vultures. They cannot discern what has to do with life. I am giving you these points simply to test.

 

3. Very patient and kind (to its young and others)

An eagle is proverbial for its kindness towards its young. They are very patient and very kind creatures. It’s very strange. You find this for example in Deuteronomy 32:11 where God compares himself to an eagle, looking after its young. You will find the same thing is true of people with spiritual discernment, that there is a mark of kindness in their lives. They may be severe sometimes but it is motivated by kindness. They may be swift but the underlying motive is always love.

 

4. Extremely wise (catching its prey and dealing with its young)

Another thing about eagles is that they are said to be extremely wise. Just now, I already gave you an illustration of its striking, apparent intelligence in dealing with the movement of a rabbit. Its wisdom is also seen in the way it deals with its young. We can often be kind to our children but not wise. The eagle is a proverb also for its wisdom and so in Exodus 19:4, God tells Moses to say to Israel when they came out of Egypt,

He is saying, “When you could hardly fly, when your wings got tired as a young eagle, I swooped underneath you and lifted you up before you crashed into the ground. I bore you out to safety.”

 

5. Speedy in accomplishing whatever needs to be done

Another thing about eagles is its speed in accomplishing whatever it is to accomplish. Deuteronomy 28:49 speaks of the speed of the eagle in accomplishing its task: “as swift as the eagle flies.”

What are you like spiritually when doing God’s will? When it comes to doing God’s will, I see there is nothing that you could call “speed” in it for many people. It is a question of “foot-dragging”, of arguing, “Why does it have to be so? Is this really necessary? Should I be doing this? Why is it necessary for Christians to do this?” And so it goes on. It’s not a certain alacrity, a certain speed of saying, “I delight to do thy will, O God!” It is speedy to move to the mark to accomplish God’s purpose. How do you or I compare with that? Are we eagles or vultures?

 

6. Profoundly antagonistic towards the snake

The eagle’s antagonism for the snake is also very interesting. The snake in the Bible has been a very ancient symbol of evil. Vultures don’t mess around with snakes because snakes are also moving things and they don’t like moving things. They like things that stay nice and still. “Don’t move while I come to eat you. Just stay there. It’s very inconvenient when you start moving. I don’t like it.” But an eagle strikes at what moves, and snakes are no exception. Many times, you see pictures of a snake at an eagle’s claws because it has a profound antagonism towards snakes.

What is your attitude to evil? That will tell you a lot about your Christian life, whether you are a vulture or an eagle. Many Christians take a very casual attitude towards evil. “Evil is okay. It’s very much permitted these days.” Licentiousness can also be permitted. Care­lessness in financial matters. Some deceit in small matters, not too big ones are acceptable. We are very careless in our spiritual com­mitment to righteousness. These are the things we must carefully observe.

 

7. Has spiritual vitality and passion about spiritual things

The eagle is a symbol of spiritual vitality. Psalm 103:5 says, “Your youth will be renewed like the eagle.” Its youth is said to be constantly renewed as in Isaiah 40:31,

Their youth is renewed; their spiritual force is driving on. As Paul says, “the outer man may be wearing away but the inner man is renewed day by day.” (2 Cor. 4:16)

Observe Christians carefully and you will notice this. When they first become Christians, they have zeal and fire! “We are going to conquer the world for God and Christ!” Then one year later, the temperature has dropped. And the next year, the temperature has gone down further. And the year after that, it has gone down further. And after a couple of years, it may be barely above freezing point. Then at some point, it goes below freezing and they have ceased. You don’t see them in church anymore.

These are not eagles. The eagle renews its youth. It grows stronger as time goes on. They seem to be always young spiritually. They never lose their vitality. If anything, they grow from strength to strength. You can tell a lot about a Christian from this mark. A Christian who quietly moves on stronger and stronger is an eagle. His youth is constantly renewed. But the one who just grows wearier and wearier spiritually speaking is a vulture. Vultures go downhill all the time.

Most importantly, it is vital to observe the difference in the sense of value. What excites you in your thinking and in your conversation will tell you whether you are much of an eagle or much of a vulture. What is the thing that delights your mind? What captivates your thinking? What causes you to get excited? That tells you a lot about where you are. The Christian who is more excited about his job, his money, his house, his car, his future prospects of promotion and the like, has his mind set on earthly things.

Where are these Christians who begin to get excited about spiritual things? For most Christians, they seem to think, “Well, don’t get too excited about spiritual things. Don’t get too excited about material things,” and so they are neither here nor there. I have to leave it to God to determine eventually whether they are vultures or eagles. Perhaps they don’t even know themselves. Perhaps they are a cross-breed between vultures and eagles! They are neither here nor there. They don’t mind feeding on living bodies sometimes, and on dead bodies other times. Either way is fine. They have a wide appetite and everything is fine. What kind of “Christians” are these? What are they? Some kind of new hybrid, a mix of some sort I haven’t heard of in the Scripture? But in the Word of God, you won’t get away with that because sooner or later, one or the other of these passions will dominate.

 

You must become an eagle to survive the days of the Antichrist

Would to God we become eagles if we are to survive! This is exactly the point of the Lord Jesus’ teaching. If you want to survive in these last days, and especially in the day of the Antichrist, you must become an eagle! Your whole sense of direction has to change. Your sense of values has to change. Don’t get excited about the things that pass away. The car looks beautiful! Oh, exciting! Beautiful car! Sure! In two years’ time, it will look less beautiful. In three years’ time, it looks less beautiful. In five years’ time, it is ready for the scrap heap. The things which are seen pass away. Why are you getting excited about it? Is it so that you can replace it with another corpse which will also pass away after that? Look for the things which are eternal, which are intransient. What is the use of living for dead things? Live for the things which endure forever!

Let us be quiet before God in prayer.

 

© 2026 Christian Disciples Church, all rights reserved.
For permission to reproduce this article, please write the church.
Sermon by Eric H.H. Chang and edited by Winnie W.Y Yee.
Picture by Bentley C.F. Chan using Google Gemini.